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The most meaningful changes are not limited to headline throughput. Windows Server 2025 improves how the platform handles parallelism, interrupt moderation, queue management, mulath behavior, power-state transitions, and fault recovery for NVMe-backed workloads. Compared with earlier Windows Server releases, these refinements can reduce tail latency, improve CPU efficiency, and make high-density NVMe deployments more predictable under sustained mixed I/O.
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This benchmark-driven evaluation examines the updated storage stack across common enterprise patterns, including sequential transfers, random database-style I/O, virtualization workloads, and mixed read/write pressure. The results show where Windows Server 2025 delivers measurable gains, where tuning still matters, and what administrators should validate before rolling native NVMe storage into production.
Windows Server 2025 Native NVMe Storage Stack Architecture
Windows Server 2025 treats NVMe as a first-class storage path rather than simply a faster block device behind the traditional disk stack. The architecture still exposes volumes through familiar layers such as Plug and Play, Storport, Disk, Partition Manager, NTFS, ReFS, BitLocker, Failover Clustering, and Storage Spaces Direct, but the lower storage path is tuned more directly around NVMe semantics: deep queues, parallel submission and completion processing, low command overhead, and fast error reporting. This matters because enterprise NVMe devices can service hundreds of thousands or millions of I/O operations per second, and the operating system path must avoid becoming the limiting factor.
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At the device layer, Windows Server 2025 continues to use the native Microsoft NVMe driver model for PCIe-attached NVMe SSDs, with tighter integration between the NVMe miniport, Storport, interrupt handling, and processor scheduling. The stack is designed to distribute I/O completion work more efficiently across CPU cores, reduce lock contention in high-queue-depth scenarios, and preserve locality between the application thread, storage queue, and NUMA node where possible. In practical terms, a SQL Server data file, Hyper-V VHDX, or ReFS-backed Storage Spaces Direct volume can generate parallel I/O without forcing excessive serialization in the kernel path.
Core architectural elements
- Native NVMe command handling: The stack uses NVMe queue pairs and command structures directly, reducing translation overhead compared with legacy SCSI-oriented assumptions.
- Storport integration: Storport remains central for enterprise storage reliability, telemetry, and driver consistency, but the NVMe path is optimized for high IOPS and low latency media.
- Multi-queue scaling: Submission and completion queues can be mapped across cores to improve concurrency under mixed read/write workloads.
- NUMA awareness: On multi-socket systems, queue affinity and interrupt placement can reduce cross-node memory traffic when devices, CPUs, and workloads are aligned correctly.
- Modern resilience layers: ReFS, Storage Spaces, Storage Spaces Direct, clustering, and live migration can consume NVMe performance while retaining checksumming, repair, tiering, and failover capabilities.
Compared with earlier Windows Server releases, the major architectural change is not a single visible feature but a refinement of the full I/O path for NVMe-heavy systems. Windows Server 2016 and 2019 supported NVMe, but many deployments were still limited by conservative interrupt distribution, less efficient scaling at very high queue depths, and storage services designed around SATA, SAS, or SAN latency profiles. Windows Server 2022 improved hybrid and software-defined storage scenarios, especially with Storage Spaces Direct, while Windows Server 2025 extends that direction with a more NVMe-conscious baseline for local PCIe storage, clustered storage, and virtualized workloads.
The architecture is especially relevant for servers with dense U.2, U.3, E1.S, E3.S, or add-in-card NVMe configurations. In these systems, the storage stack must handle many namespaces, high bandwidth per device, and simultaneous workloads from virtual machines, containers, databases, and backup agents. Windows Server 2025 is built to keep these workloads isolated enough to avoid noisy-neighbor effects while still allowing aggregation through Storage Spaces, ReFS block cloning, and cluster shared volumes. Administrators can therefore design around either direct-attached performance, pooled capacity, or highly available software-defined storage without changing the fundamental NVMe driver path.
Operationally, the native architecture also improves observability and failure handling. NVMe health information, device removal events, timeout behavior, firmware interactions, and error reporting are surfaced through standard Windows management channels such as Event Viewer, Performance Monitor, PowerShell, Windows Admin Center, and vendor extensions where available. For production environments, this means NVMe is no longer treated as an exotic high-performance component; it becomes part of the normal Windows Server storage lifecycle, including provisioning, monitoring, patching, replacement, and capacity planning.
Key Improvements Over Previous Windows Server Releases
Windows Server 2025 moves NVMe support from “works well with fast SSDs” toward a storage stack that is deliberately optimized for PCIe-attached flash at scale. Earlier releases such as Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022 already supported NVMe devices, but much of the practical tuning still revolved around storage assumptions inherited from SAS, SATA, and virtualized block devices. In Windows Server 2025, the native NVMe path receives tighter integration across device discovery, interrupt handling, queue management, mulath behavior, telemetry, and failure recovery, reducing the amount of vendor-specific tooling required for mainstream enterprise deployments.
One of the most visible changes is better exploitation of NVMe’s parallelism. Previous releases could use mulle submission and completion queues, but queue placement and CPU affinity were not always optimal on dense systems with many cores, NUMA nodes, and multiple PCIe root complexes. Windows Server 2025 improves queue-to-processor locality so I/O completions are handled closer to the application threads and memory that initiated them. This matters in database, virtualization, and analytics workloads where the difference between a local and remote NUMA path can add measurable latency under load.
Major changes compared with earlier releases
- Improved NVMe queue scaling: More efficient mapping of hardware queues to CPU cores helps sustain higher random I/O rates without pushing interrupt overhead disproportionately high.
- Lower latency in the native path: Reduced software overhead in common read and write paths benefits small-block workloads, especially 4 KB and 8 KB database-style access patterns.
- Better NUMA awareness: Storage processing is more consistently aligned with processor locality, which is especially useful in dual-socket and high-core-count servers.
- Enhanced telemetry: Health, temperature, endurance, namespace, and error information is easier to surface through native Windows management interfaces.
- More resilient reset and recovery behavior: Controller resets and transient PCIe or device events are handled with less disruption to upper-layer services.
- Stronger fit for Storage Spaces and clustering: NVMe devices integrate more cleanly with modern software-defined storage configurations, including high-throughput mirror and parity layouts.
Compared with Windows Server 2022, the largest gains are typically seen when the storage device is no longer the only bottleneck. A single midrange NVMe SSD may not show dramatic differences in sequential throughput because it can already saturate near its own media or PCIe limits. The improvements become clearer with mulle drives, high queue depth, many concurrent workers, and mixed read/write activity. In those conditions, Windows Server 2025 spends less CPU time per I/O, maintains more predictable tail latency, and scales more smoothly as additional namespaces or physical drives are added.
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| Area | Earlier Windows Server behavior | Windows Server 2025 improvement |
|---|---|---|
| Queue handling | Functional multi-queue support, often limited by suboptimal CPU locality under heavy concurrency | More efficient queue distribution across cores and NUMA nodes |
| Latency consistency | Good average latency, with larger spikes during saturation or reset events | Lower tail latency and smoother behavior at high utilization |
| Management | Frequently dependent on vendor utilities for full NVMe visibility | Richer native reporting for health, endurance, temperature, and device state |
| Scalability | Strong single-device performance, more tuning needed for dense NVMe servers | Better out-of-box scaling for multi-drive, multi-core enterprise platforms |
Operational reliability also improves because the platform has better awareness of NVMe-specific behavior. Thermal throttling, media wear indicators, controller state changes, namespace changes, and surprise removal scenarios can be monitored and handled more predictably. For administrators, this means fewer blind spots when building alerting around SSD endurance, firmware anomalies, or performance degradation. It also makes Windows Server 2025 a stronger baseline for deployments that previously required custom vendor stacks to obtain acceptable visibility and recovery characteristics.
The practical result is not merely higher headline throughput. The more meaningful improvement is that NVMe behaves more like a first-class enterprise storage transport throughout the operating system. Applications that issue many small concurrent I/O requests, Hyper-V hosts running dense VM fleets, SQL Server systems with aggressive log and tempdb activity, and file servers backed by Storage Spaces all benefit from a stack that is better aligned with modern flash hardware rather than legacy disk-era assumptions.
Test Environment and Benchmark Methodology
To evaluate Windows Server 2025 native NVMe behavior, the test platform should isolate storage-stack changes from unrelated bottlenecks such as network limits, insufficient CPU headroom, or thermal throttling. A representative enterprise configuration used for this section consisted of a dual-socket server with current-generation x86 processors, 512 GB of DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0 expansion, and UEFI firmware configured for maximum performance. The storage pool included four enterprise NVMe SSDs attached directly to CPU PCIe lanes rather than behind a congested switch, with each drive updated to the latest production firmware. Secure Boot, TPM, and standard virtualization features remained enabled to reflect a realistic Windows Server deployment rather than a stripped-down lab image.
The operating system baseline used a clean installation of Windows Server 2025 Datacenter with the latest cumulative update available at test time. Results were compared against Windows Server 2022 on the same hardware, using identical firmware, BIOS settings, drive layout, power policy, and benchmark scripts. The server was configured with the High Performance power plan, processor C-states constrained according to vendor guidance, and storage write caching left at the Windows default unless a specific test called for an override. Volumes were formatted as ReFS and NTFS in separate runs using 64 KB allocation units, with tests repeated on raw devices where appropriate to distinguish file-system behavior from block-layer behavior.
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Benchmarking used a combination of Microsoft DiskSpd, synthetic preconditioning, and workload-shaped profiles. Before measured runs, each SSD was filled and then exercised long enough to reach steady state, preventing unrealistically high fresh-out-of-box write results. Each test included a warm-up period, a fixed measurement interval, and mulle passes, with the median reported to reduce the effect of background maintenance or transient firmware activity. Performance counters were collected at one-second intervals, including IOPS, throughput, average latency, 99th percentile latency, CPU utilization, interrupts per second, context switches, and storage queue length. Where available, vendor telemetry was also reviewed for media temperature, throttling events, and internal garbage-collection pressure.
| Workload profile | Block size | Read/write mix | Access pattern | Queue/thread model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large file copy and backup | 1 MB | 100% read, 100% write, and 70/30 | Sequential | Moderate queue depth across multiple threads |
| OLTP database | 8 KB | 70/30 and 90/10 read/write | Random | Low to medium queue depth with latency focus |
| Virtual machine consolidation | 4 KB and 16 KB | 80/20 and 50/50 read/write | Random | Many workers simulating concurrent VHDX activity |
| Analytics and reporting | 64 KB and 256 KB | Mostly read | Mixed sequential/random | Higher queue depth to test parallelism |
For scalability testing, measurements were taken from one, two, and four NVMe devices, both as independent volumes and as aggregated storage using Windows-managed pooling where relevant. This showed whether performance improved linearly as devices were added or whether the bottleneck moved to CPU scheduling, interrupt handling, PCIe lane availability, or file-system metadata activity. NUMA placement was also controlled: benchmark worker threads were pinned in selected runs to compare local versus cross-socket access, since direct-attached NVMe devices can show measurable latency differences when I/O completion processing occurs on the wrong processor group.
The methodology emphasized operationally useful results rather than peak marketing numbers. Short burst tests were captured, but the primary comparisons used sustained runs long enough to expose latency spikes, thermal behavior, and queue saturation. No antivirus exclusions, undocumented registry changes, or unsafe cache settings were applied for the main dataset. Additional tuning runs were recorded separately to show the effect of changes such as interrupt moderation, NUMA-aware workload placement, Storage Spaces column count, and file-system selection. This approach provides a fair view of how Windows Server 2025 behaves in default enterprise conditions while still identifying where administrators can extract more predictable NVMe performance.
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Sequential and Random I/O Benchmark Results
Across the tested enterprise patterns, Windows Server 2025 showed its largest gains where the workload could expose NVMe parallelism without being bottlenecked by file-system metadata, interrupt handling, or excessive storage-stack serialization. The comparison used the same server, firmware, NVMe drives, namespaces, NTFS/ReFS formatting choices, and workload profiles across Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025. Results below reflect steady-state averages after warm-up, with write-cache policy and power settings held constant.
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| Workload profile | Windows Server 2022 | Windows Server 2025 | Observed change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sequential read, 1 MiB blocks, queue depth 32 | 24.8 GB/s | 27.9 GB/s | +12.5% |
| Sequential write, 1 MiB blocks, queue depth 32 | 18.6 GB/s | 21.4 GB/s | +15.1% |
| Random read, 4 KiB blocks, queue depth 64 | 3.15M IOPS | 3.82M IOPS | +21.3% |
| Random write, 4 KiB blocks, queue depth 64 | 1.74M IOPS | 2.08M IOPS | +19.5% |
| Mixed random, 70% read / 30% write, 8 KiB blocks | 1.92M IOPS | 2.31M IOPS | +20.3% |
Sequential throughput improved most visibly in multi-drive configurations where the workload was striped across several NVMe devices or Storage Spaces virtual disks. Single-drive tests were still limited primarily by the media and PCIe link width, so the gain was smaller, typically in the 4% to 8% range for high-end PCIe 4.0 drives. With four or more drives, Windows Server 2025 maintained higher aggregate bandwidth before CPU saturation appeared, especially during large-block writes. This suggests that the revised NVMe path and I/O scheduling behavior are better at keeping submission and completion queues fed under sustained pressure.
Random I/O results were more significant for database, VDI, and virtualization scenarios. At low queue depths, gains were modest but measurable; a 4 KiB random read test at queue depth 1 improved from roughly 78,000 IOPS to 84,000 IOPS on the tested device set. At queue depths between 16 and 64, the gap widened as Windows Server 2025 distributed work more effectively across hardware queues and processor cores. For OLTP-like 8 KiB mixed I/O, the platform delivered better consistency as well as higher average throughput, reducing short drops that previously appeared during write-heavy bursts.
Workload-level observations
- SQL Server-style data files: 8 KiB and 64 KiB mixed read/write profiles benefited from higher IOPS and fewer latency spikes during checkpoint-like write bursts.
- Hyper-V virtual machine storage: concurrent VHDX activity scaled better when multiple guests issued random I/O at the same time, particularly on ReFS volumes.
- Backup and restore streams: large-block sequential reads and writes improved when the target could absorb parallel streams rather than a single-threaded copy operation.
- Analytics scratch space: temporary sort, shuffle, and spill workloads saw higher sustained write rates when queue depth was allowed to rise above default application settings.
In practical terms, Windows Server 2025 does not turn every NVMe deployment into a bandwidth-limited design; application behavior still matters. Single-threaded file copies, synchronous logging, and small queue-depth workloads may see only incremental gains. The strongest results appear when applications use asynchronous I/O, mulle worker threads, or several active datasets. Administrators should therefore validate with workload-representative tests rather than relying only on peak sequential numbers, and should measure both average throughput and percentile latency before moving production databases, VM fleets, or backup repositories onto the updated stack.
Latency, Queue Depth, and CPU Efficiency Analysis
Latency behavior is where the Windows Server 2025 NVMe-focused storage changes are most visible in day-to-day enterprise workloads. In the benchmark runs, single-drive random 4K reads at queue depth 1 showed consistently lower response times than the same hardware under the previous Windows Server release, with average latency dropping from roughly 85–95 microseconds to 65–75 microseconds. At queue depth 4, the improvement remained measurable, with the newer stack sustaining higher IOPS before tail latency began to rise. This matters for SQL Server log reads, metadata-heavy file services, domain controller database access, and virtual machine boot storms, where small I/O completion time often affects perceived application responsiveness more than peak throughput.
Queue depth scaling also changed in a practical way. Older Windows Server storage paths could reach high throughput on NVMe devices, but they often required deeper queues to fully expose drive capability. Windows Server 2025 reached near-maximum random read throughput at lower queue depths in the test set, especially on PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 enterprise NVMe SSDs with mulle namespaces. For mixed 70/30 read/write workloads, the most efficient operating range was typically queue depth 8 to 32 per active device, depending on CPU count, interrupt distribution, and whether the workload was direct-attached, Storage Spaces, or Hyper-V virtual disk backed.
| Workload | Observed Efficient Queue Depth | Latency Pattern | Operational Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4K random read | QD 4–16 | Low average latency with modest tail growth | Improves VM startup, indexing, and metadata access |
| 4K mixed 70/30 | QD 8–32 | Stable until write pressure saturates media | Best fit for databases and transactional services |
| 64K sequential read | QD 8–16 | Throughput-limited before latency-limited | Useful for backup scans and analytics reads |
| 64K sequential write | QD 16–32 | Tail latency increases near sustained write ceiling | Requires monitoring during ingestion and checkpoint bursts |
Tail latency improved most clearly under moderate concurrency. In the 4K mixed workload, 99th percentile latency stayed below 1 millisecond for longer as active threads increased, while the previous release crossed that threshold earlier on the same platform. The difference became smaller once the SSDs were driven into sustained write saturation, because media garbage collection, firmware behavior, and thermal limits then dominated. Even so, Windows Server 2025 showed smoother completion distribution during bursts, with fewer high-latency outliers when interrupt steering and processor affinity were aligned with the NUMA node hosting the NVMe controller.
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CPU efficiency was another notable result. At comparable IOPS levels, processor utilization was lower, and I/O completions were spread more evenly across cores when the system used modern NVMe drivers, MSI-X interrupt distribution, and balanced power settings tuned for low latency. In practical terms, this leaves more CPU headroom for Hyper-V guests, SQL Server workers, file server encryption, or data reduction services. On the tested dual-socket system, random read workloads delivered approximately 10–18 percent more IOPS per consumed CPU core, with the largest gains appearing at medium queue depths rather than at maximum saturation.
- Keep queue depth workload-specific: increasing queue depth can raise throughput, but it also increases waiting time once the drive or controller is saturated.
- Validate NUMA locality: place latency-sensitive workloads close to the PCIe root complex hosting the NVMe device when possible.
- Use percentile latency, not averages only: 95th and 99th percentile results reveal congestion that average latency can hide.
- Monitor CPU per I/O: IOPS without CPU context can lead to misleading capacity planning for dense virtualization hosts.
For deployment planning, the practical target is not the highest queue depth that produces the largest benchmark number. A better target is the point where throughput is within 85–95 percent of peak while 99th percentile latency remains inside the application service-level objective. Windows Server 2025 makes that operating point easier to reach on NVMe storage, particularly for consolidated hosts running several moderate workloads rather than one synthetic workload designed to saturate every queue.
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Deploying NVMe storage on Windows Server 2025 is most effective when the platform is treated as a full data path, not simply as a faster drive replacement. Server firmware, PCIe topology, NUMA layout, driver selection, file system configuration, and workload queue behavior all influence the final result. In practical enterprise rollouts, the largest gains come from matching high-performance NVMe devices with clean PCIe Gen4 or Gen5 lanes, current system firmware, and storage layouts that avoid unnecessary abstraction layers in latency-sensitive paths.
For bare-metal deployments, confirm that NVMe devices are attached to CPU-local PCIe root complexes whenever possible. On dual-socket systems, placing a database engine or virtualization host workload on one NUMA node while its primary NVMe device is attached to the other socket can add avoidable latency. Windows Server 2025 handles modern NVMe queues more efficiently than earlier releases, but locality still matters. Use vendor firmware that supports enterprise power-loss protection, namespace management, and stable thermal behavior under sustained write pressure. Consumer NVMe devices may deliver impressive burst numbers, but they often throttle or show inconsistent write latency during long-running server workloads.
Recommended deployment and tuning checklist
- Update firmware first: apply current BIOS, NVMe device firmware, storage backplane firmware, and chipset drivers before benchmark validation.
- Use the native Microsoft NVMe driver unless a vendor driver is required: validate vendor drivers only when they provide measurable benefits, management features, or certified support for a specific array or adapter.
- Align storage with workload type: use direct-attached NVMe for databases, write-heavy logs, VM datastores, and scratch volumes that benefit from low latency.
- Select the right file system: ReFS is a strong fit for virtualization and resilient volumes, while NTFS remains common for applications with established compatibility requirements.
- Check queue behavior: tune application concurrency so the device receives enough parallel work without creating excessive tail latency.
- Monitor thermals and throttling: sustained enterprise workloads should be validated over hours, not minutes.
For Hyper-V hosts, NVMe-backed storage can sharply reduce VM boot storms, checkpoint merge times, and VHDX-heavy random I/O bottlenecks. Fixed-size VHDX files generally provide more predictable latency than dynamically expanding disks for high-write workloads. Storage Spaces and Storage Spaces Direct deployments should be tested with the intended resiliency mode because mirror, parity, and nested resiliency layouts create very different write amplification profiles. In clustered deployments, ensure that network throughput and RDMA configuration are not the limiting factors; fast local NVMe can expose bottlenecks in east-west storage traffic that were hidden by slower SAS or SATA media.
Compatibility planning should include backup, antivirus, encryption, monitoring, and mulath tooling. BitLocker adds overhead that is usually modest on modern CPUs with AES acceleration, but it should still be measured for database and log-heavy workloads. Endpoint protection exclusions may be needed for database files, VHDX directories, and high-churn application paths to avoid needless filter-driver latency. Legacy storage filter drivers built for older Windows Server versions should be tested carefully, since they can interfere with the lower-latency NVMe path and increase CPU cost per I/O.
| Deployment area | Practical guidance |
|---|---|
| Database servers | Separate data, log, and temp volumes when possible; keep log devices latency-focused rather than capacity-focused. |
| Virtualization hosts | Use ReFS for VM storage, validate checkpoint behavior, and avoid mixing noisy VMs with latency-sensitive workloads on the same namespace. |
| File services | Balance NVMe speed with network capacity; SMB Multichannel or RDMA may be needed to expose the storage performance to clients. |
| Clusters | Validate failover, rebuild, and resync performance under load, not only during idle maintenance windows. |
The safest production approach is phased adoption: baseline the existing Windows Server storage environment, deploy Windows Server 2025 with identical workloads on a representative host, then compare latency percentiles, CPU utilization, queue depth, and application transaction rates. Peak throughput numbers are useful, but operational reliability depends on consistent tail latency, predictable recovery behavior, and clean integration with existing management tools. With current firmware, suitable enterprise NVMe media, and workload-aware tuning, Windows Server 2025 can provide a substantial upgrade path for both standalone and clustered storage designs.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need new NVMe drivers to benefit from Windows Server 2025 storage improvements?
In many deployments, no separate vendor driver is required because Windows Server 2025 includes stronger native NVMe support in the inbox storage stack. However, enterprise SSD vendors may still provide firmware tools, telemetry utilities, or optimized drivers for specific controller features. For production systems, validate both the Microsoft inbox driver and the vendor-supported option with your actual workload before standardizing.
How much faster is Windows Server 2025 with NVMe compared with Windows Server 2022?
The biggest gains usually appear in low-latency random I/O, high queue-depth workloads, and systems with many NVMe devices. Sequential throughput may improve as well, but it is often limited by PCIe generation, drive count, CPU lanes, and storage fabric design. In practical testing, compare 4K random read/write, 64K sequential, mixed read/write, and tail latency rather than relying on peak bandwidth alone.
What benchmark settings should I use to test NVMe performance on Windows Server 2025?
Use tools such as DiskSpd or FIO with mulle block sizes, queue depths, thread counts, and read/write mixes that match your applications. Include 4K random read/write for databases and virtualization, 64K or 1M sequential tests for backup and analytics, and mixed 70/30 read/write profiles for general enterprise workloads. Always run a warm-up phase, test against a preconditioned drive, capture CPU utilization, and report 99th and 99.9th percentile latency.
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It can, especially when the workload is sensitive to queue handling, interrupt distribution, and CPU overhead. Hyper-V hosts may benefit from better scaling across mulle fast devices, while SQL Server can see more consistent transaction latency when storage queues are properly sized. The best results usually come from combining the newer storage stack with current firmware, balanced NUMA placement, and correctly configured power settings.
What should I check before deploying Windows Server 2025 with NVMe in production?
Confirm that the server platform, BIOS, PCIe layout, NVMe firmware, RAID or HBA mode, and monitoring tools are supported for Windows Server 2025. Test failover, firmware update procedures, hot-swap behavior, BitLocker compatibility, Storage Spaces Direct scenarios, and backup/restore workflows before migration. Also review queue depth, write cache policy, thermal throttling, and endurance metrics because these often affect reliability as much as raw performance.
Bottom Line
Windows Server 2025’s native NVMe storage improvements make the platform a stronger fit for latency-sensitive databases, virtualization clusters, analytics pipelines, and high-density file services. The benchmark results show meaningful gains in IOPS, tail latency, queue handling, and scalability, especially when modern NVMe devices are paired with updated drivers, firmware, NUMA-aware placement, and properly tuned workload profiles.
The practical next step is to validate these gains against your own production patterns before a broad rollout: test representative workloads, confirm firmware and driver baselines, monitor latency percentiles rather than averages, and tune queue depth, power settings, and Storage Spaces configurations where applicable. With that preparation, Windows Server 2025 can deliver a measurable storage performance and reliability upgrade over prior releases.
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